Poultry ready for global market

Staff Correspondent
With already starting the practice of international standards in production, Bangladesh’s poultry industry is preparing itself to be added to the country’s export basket.
The government, with a view to facilitating poultry export to foreign markets, is now working on amending the existing poultry policy, according to the government officials.
They also said the government is also planning to set up some areas in the country so that they can be declared as ‘poultry industrial zones’ to ensure high bio-security and establishing international standard production procedures. According to them, the guideline is being prepared with an aim to fulfil World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) protocols so that it can help the local industry get international certificates for the export.
In different parts of the country, a compartmentalisation system will be put in place in order to pay a special focus on poultry industries to ensure their compliance with international practices while in production, they added.
Some local poultry industry owners said they already introduced the international standard production system aiming to grab the global export markets for poultry feed, meat and eggs. They said they had set up poultry feed mills, meat, egg, day-old-chick (DOC) production units and processed food unit complying with the international standard.
The local poultry business owners said if the government assists the local industry in ensuring good management practices, provides some tax benefits for making them competitive producers and improves the capacity of the Chattogram seaport, the poultry industry will be able to start export within a short period.
They suggested the government should declare some areas as poultry zones where the bio-security and other international practices will be ensured. It will help give the global market a positive message about Bangladesh’s poultry industry to help raise poultry export.
The poultry industry leaders also urged the government to work with the local producers to find their niche in the export markets.
The local poultry industry is supplying the major portion of the domestic protein requirement.
Industries claimed that the size of the country’s poultry industry rose to nearly Tk 250 billion creating 20 per cent of the jobs. Its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for nearly 2.4 per cent.
According to the BPICC 2015 data, the local industry could produce nearly 7.12 billion eggs, 574,629 tonnes of meat, 2.9 million tonnes of feed and Tk 33.30 billion worth of medicine annually.